Description Casual Senior Practitioner - Emergency Social Care Service Waverley Court Hours: Casual Salary: £46,023 - £54,476 Seeking candidates from Edinburgh and the neighbouring authorities. Emergency Social Care provides a generic Social Work service for the City of Edinburgh, East and Mid Lothian Councils. The experienced team undertake Child Protection / Children & Families assessments, MHO assessments and other Health and Social Care tasks. You will be part of a busy dynamic group of Senior Practitioners covering day shifts, backshifts and nightshifts (out of hours, week-ends and public holidays) offering a unique opportunity to experience generic working and management of risk. Successful candidates must have a recognised Social Work qualification, plus either a Child Protection or an MHO accreditation. You must be registered with the Scottish Social Services Council. Management/supervisory experience would be preferable, as would holding a Senior Practitioner post in your current, substantive (permanent) position if you are a current employee of Edinburgh City Council. If you are applying externally this may be different. If you are successfully recruited to this role, there is an expectation that you will pick up at least one shift per month. There is also an expectation that successful candidates will offer to cover night shifts as and when required. Any casual contract offered will be in additional to substantive contracts and will be separate to the terms and conditions attached to substantive contracts. Successful candidates must familiarise themselves with The Council’s Working Time Regulations and adhere to these. If you require further information before applying, please e-mail Brian Henderson at brian.henderson@edinburgh.gov.uk. This post is regulated work with children and/or protected adults under the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007. The preferred candidate will be required to join the PVG Scheme or undergo a PVG Scheme update check. Where an individual has spent a continuous period of 3 months or more out with the UK in the last 5 years, an Overseas Criminal Record Check will be required. You will be required to provide this check. An unconditional offer of employment and commencement in the post will be subject to the outcome of both these pre-employment checks being deemed satisfactory. We're committed to creating a workplace culture where all our people feel valued, included and able to be their best at work, and we recognise the benefits that a diverse workforce with different values, beliefs, experience, and backgrounds brings to us as an organisation. As part of our goal to improve our organisational culture and create a great place to work together for the people of Edinburgh, we want to make sure that we’re bringing the best people into our roles, not just in their skills and experience but also in their approach to work. To help achieve this, we’re changing the way we interview and assess candidates by moving from a competency-based interview approach to a behavioural and technical (skills for the job) based approach. This new way of interviewing will allow us to assess how you think and how you would bring Our Behaviours of Respect, Integrity and Flexibility into your ways of working. You can find out more on Our Behaviours web page Our Behaviours – The City of Edinburgh Council Our salary range typically reflects the initial starting salary and annually increases until it reaches the top of the range. Happy to talk flexible working. Follow us on Twitter at @edincounciljobs View Senior Practitioner Job Description Responsibilities POST TITLE ADVANCED PRACTITIONER In Edinburgh we are committed to keeping the Promise and our Corporate Parenting responsibilities to ensure every child and young person grows up feeling safe, loved, and respected. As a workforce this means we focus on what matters to children and families, listen, and follow through. We understand and act on the impacts of poverty and honour children’s rights. Also, treat all those we work with respect and as unique individuals using our language with care and sensitivity. PURPOSE OF JOB The post holder will ensure that the highest quality of practice is provided and maintained, and appropriate services are delivered to meet children and families needs within the Council’s statutory obligations, policies, and procedures. This will be achieved through practice leadership in the form of professional coaching, support, advice and guidance with practice teams whilst maintaining direct involvement and case responsibility in the most complex and challenging casework. Posts are located in the range of teams within Children’s Services including locality practice teams, disability team, family-based care teams, young people’s service and throughcare & aftercare. There is an expectation that the post is in part peripatetic in nature and will pivot to support teams where the greatest need is identified and or where practice expertise is being developed. Professional values and a commitment to supporting children and young people to remain in or return to their own homes and communities through participation and effective family and community support, wherever safe to do so is integral to our work approach and this post requires advanced skills to support and guide this approach with others. THE WHAT - MAJOR TASKS/JOB ACTIVITIES • To lead, develop and champion evidence based, high quality practice delivered in each team and across the service area supporting relational, rights based and participatory practice. • Raise local standards of practice through the identification, sharing and embedding of knowledge, skills and experience. • Evaluation of practice delivery and integrate learning to achieve outcomes • Champion and model reflective and restorative practice within debriefs, team development sessions and group supervision. • To use, reference and actively support others with the ‘Getting It Right for Every Child’ framework and The Promise in the process of supporting children, young people, and families. • Coach and support practitioners through complex case decision making and interventions • Decide when to intervene in a case held by another member of staff, in a way which supports the effective progress of the case and develops the knowledge and skill of the individual member of staff. • Take action to escalate a deteriorating child or vulnerable adult situation to management or other involved parties to manage risk and safeguard against further potential harm. • Facilitate and chair more complex, contentious meetings utilising mediation and conflict resolution skills. • Support the Team Leader and Service Manager in managing incoming work, allocation to staff, making effective use of available resources and drawing attention to unmet demands. • Build and maintain a detailed working knowledge of relevant legislation, developments in practice theory, research, national and Council policies and objectives. Take a proactive role in disseminating such information in an informative and comprehensive format tailored to audience need. • Make a significant contribution to evaluating, developing, and maintaining high practice standards and the improvement of service delivery to children, young people, and families. • Contribute, through the delivery of learning, support, and other measures to individual staff members or on a wider scale, to the acquisition of knowledge, practice competence and professional development of social work staff. • Support the practice of newly qualified social workers, students, social work assistants through review of work, direct observations, co-working, and coaching. In addition, mentor and support colleagues for specific time periods on tasks to progress areas of development. • Lead and develop learning sets, circles communities of practice. • Pivot and link flexibly across teams where need and specialist knowledge are evident. • Work collaboratively with other senior social workers, advanced practitioners and relevant staff to input into social work development and standard-setting forums. • Represent the team and service area and participate in inter-agency working groups. Represent the Council on national forums and other networks or external bodies where required. • Take the lead in working collaboratively with other relevant agencies to ensure best outcomes for service users at an individual level and for service provision within the community. Build and maintain a network of agencies and contacts to ensure the desired service provision for children or vulnerable adults and their families. • Take full responsibility, within normal arrangements for accountability, for managing a caseload through the delivery of direct professional social work service to children and young people and their families or carers • Cases allocated to this role will be the most complex and challenging. This could include cases which are high profile public scrutiny, subject to complex complaint process, multiple perpetrators and organised abuse Senior Leadership shall define cases that require allocation to this role. • Case management will make up 300% of workload. • Plan, implement, review and evaluate care plans against desired outcomes with individuals and their families; relevant groups, carers, communities and other professionals. • Use advanced social work knowledge and experience to inform the management and prioritisation of a complex caseload including critical assessment of urgency and requirement for action, adhering to statutory regulations and Council procedures. • Carry out planned interventions using the most appropriate methodologies. Use research findings and statutory guidance to inform social work practice. • Compile and present concise reports about complex information in line with formal responsibilities to meet the requirements of statutory procedures and the courts. Respect the rights and responsibilities of all service users and carers. • Develop practice guidance, policy and procedure in line with best practice and ensure it is implemented across the service. • Actively support service development through self-evaluation and continuous improvement. • Drive professional standards to support the ambition to achieve excellence within internal and external audits THE HOW - KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS (E.G. CREATIVITY & INNOVATION, CONTACTS & RELATIONSHIPS, DECISION MAKING) • Degree in Social Work or equivalent is essential together with registration with the Scottish Social Services Council as a condition of continued employment. • Possession of a post social work registration qualification relevant to the specialist service area, e.g. Child Protection Certificate; Practice Learning qualification; Mental Health Officer Award; Certificate in Adult Protection, Certificates in coaching, counselling, or other equivalent qualification. • Candidates are required to join the PVG Scheme/ undergo a PVG scheme update prior to a formal offer of employment. • Able to evidence considerable, varied experience and established competence as a social work practitioner. The post holder would be required to have a minimum of five years of post-qualified experience. • Ability to assess complex information, contribute to team management decisions, to develop consensus on risk management, and take a lead role in monitoring and reviewing risk. • An ability to develop, maintain and communicate with a wide range of partners and stakeholders including those where there may be conflicting priorities and values, to promote effective joint working. • Comprehensive knowledge of relevant legislation, departmental policies, practices and procedures, best practice. • Advocate for children and parents. Awareness of rights and incorporation of rights into practice approaches and supports practitioners to be effective in this. • An ability to lead colleagues by supporting, advising coaching, and guiding them to provide excellent quality standards of care and services. • Ability to support, mentor and facilitate learning and reflection through a range of approaches. ENVIRONMENT (WORK DEMANDS, PHYSICAL DEMANDS, WORKING CONDITIONS, WORK CONTEXT) • The post holder will be required to plan and control use of their own time and activities within agreed objectives and targets. Timescales will vary and may be both short and long-term with associated impact on the complexity of identifying and quantifying direct post holder’s contribution over time. • The intensive nature of the work involved in supporting children and and their families/carers; resolving complex, urgent and/or long-standing difficulties can place considerable work demands on the post holder who needs to remain objective and professional if quality of service delivery is to be maintained. • Regular adherence to prescribed timescales, requiring the ability to maintain clarity under pressure and to regularly reprioritise workload while maintaining safety. • Periods of intense concentration in working with people including children, young people, and parents/carers. • Due to the experiences of many of our children and families, there is likely exposure to episodes of acute distress, dysregulation and hostile reactivity requiring staff resilience in assessing and responding. • Keeping the child/young person’s needs and safety as paramount while doing all of the above. • The postholder will work from an office base and will be expected to regularly travel to appointments at clients’ homes, schools and other venues as required. The postholder is responsible for their own travel arrangements, whether by public transport, cycling, walking or car. • The postholder will adhere to the council’s lone working procedures and will, alongside their line manager, risk assess individual appointments. • As a staff member with responsibilities for supporting practitioners – they will be required, when situations arise to intervene and take action to manage risk when members of staff are subject to behaviours as identified above from service users or members of the public. • Providing support and guidance to staff who may be negatively impacted by trauma work. SUPERVISION AND MANAGEMENT OF PEOPLE (NUMBERS AND TYPE OF STAFF) • This post holds no line management or supervisory responsibilities; however, will be involved with practice leadership – coaching, mentoring, advising, and guiding all staff. • They will have specific responsibility for supporting newly qualified social workers, social work assistants and students with an expectation of formally supporting a minimum of one student every two years. • To be involved in the recruitment and selection of staff, induction, and mentoring, identify staff training needs, contributing to training programmes, coaching, and supporting staff development. • This may involve chairing of meetings and investigating complaints. RESOURCES • The post holder will have shared responsibility for the use of an IT system and will be issued with a work laptop and mobile phone with responsibility to ensure they are not lost or damaged. • The post holder will not be responsible for a budget, however, may have to authorise financial assistance in accordance with service procedures and guidance. HEALTH AND SAFETY Protecting the health and safety and welfare of our employees, and our third parties including members of the public, contractors, service users and pupils, is the starting point for a forward-thinking Council. All employees are responsible for: • Taking care of their own health and safety and welfare, and that of others who may be affected by their actions or omissions. • Co-operating with management and following instructions, safe systems, and procedures. • Reporting any hazards, damage, or defects immediately to their line manager; and • Reporting any personal injury and work-related ill health, and accident or incident (including ‘near misses’) immediately to their line manager, and assist with any subsequent investigation, including co-operating fully with the provision of witness statements and any other evidence that may be required. Additional information can be found in the Council Health and Safety Policy.